Introduction

The goal of these guidelines is to encourage the practice of jousting in An Tir by sharing advice and best practices kingdom-wide.

An Tir is fortunate to have several people with years of jousting experience, but our kingdom is also vast and not everyone has local access to those with this expertise. By recording the advice and best practices of our collective experience into these guidelines, we hope to equip An Tir equestrians with the tools and information to enable widespread joust training and to increase the quality of jousting skills within the kingdom.

Success in jousting is dependent on three things:

A confident and skilled rider

A calm and willing horse

Safe and proficient technique of the rider

In these guidelines we are attempting to define in some detail each of these things, not only in terms of recognizing what the proper technique looks like but also how to go about developing it.

Additionally, one jouster, no matter how skilled, does not a tournament make. It is our hope that by sharing this information, we might encourage others to hone their skills and join us on the field.

I am greatly indebted to several people for their contributions to these guidelines, most notably Gordon Frye, Bev Thompson, and Sir Rapheal the Rogue. Thanks also to Master Sean O'Conner for giving generously of his time to create the animations illustrating lance techniques, and to Mistress Annisa Gabrielli for creating the original drawings.